Steve Roberts wants Pickering Town to be looking up the NPL Division One North West table and not down it.
Roberts is preparing for his first full campaign with Pickering after replacing Denny Ingram on the turn of the year.
Pickering would have probably gone down if the 2019/20 season was completed and Roberts hopes his summer recruitment will enable them to have a positive year.
“I still believe as a group with the players I have brought in and the mindset of the players and the ability we have got, I think we’ll have a lot stronger season than we’ve had before in the league,” Roberts told Non League Yorkshire.
“There is experience brought in with the likes of Dave Merris, Leon Osbourne and Wayne Brooksby. Jack Johnson was one I was targeting ever since I took over and even though he’s quite young, he’s been around the Non League scene for four or five years.
“We have a good blend of young and experience and that’s what I wanted. Our mindset is to be nowhere near that relegation scrap where they’ve been for the last two seasons.
“If we can get into mid-table, that would be deemed successful for Pickering because of where they have been since getting promoted to this league.”
Pickering’s first competitive game, the FA Cup tie at Penrith, did end in disappointment. A disastrous start saw them go 3-0 down after 30 minutes. The Pikes rallied and cut the deficit to one and Roberts admits it was a learning experience.
“We want to get the ball down play as much as we can,” he said.
“We have good footballers in the side like Wayne Brooksby, Jack Johnson, Jackson Jowett and Ben Clappison at centre-half who are good on the ball.
“I have been around Scarborough for many years and you have to adapt to Non League Football and you can’t always play a certain way. I think that was us against Penrith in the FA Cup.
“I think we should have been more direct in the first 20 minutes to take the pressure off ourselves and then played our football as the game developed.
“We will try and play football, but we will have to adapt and play different styles in games when needed. We’ll be attack-minded as much as possible.”
The pandemic has made travelling long distances tougher logistically for some clubs and Pickering are one of them. Although clubs can hire coaches, out of 52 seats, only 26 can be filled.
The sight of the Pickering team coach was a synonymous presence with their away trips – not this season though.
“To clubs like Pickering and other Non League sides, it is not financially viable to get a coach because you’re half filling it,” he said.
“We used to have maybe 15 or 20 fans who loved going to all the away games. They helped fund the coach by paying their money.
“You can’t have them on the bus because with the players and coaching staff, you’re pretty much up to your capacity numbers.
“Until that changes we probably won’t use coaches because the running costs don’t match. It is going to be tough because ideally I want the players on the coach together because they can bond and get to know each other.
“We have done things like go out for a meal to know each other, but it is going to be a lot difficult because I’m not a fan of players going (to away games) in cars. We have to do at the minute, but you have that fear that a car can break down or players can get lost which means you have lost players for the game.
“At times people are going to be leggy from journeys too, especially when they have been in a car for a long period. You do want to be on a coach where you can relax and get your legs stretched.”
Pickering’s First Fixtures (from official league start date)
September 19th – Workington (H)
September 26th – Mossley (A)
September 29th – Ramsbottom United (A)
October 3rd – Marine (A)
October 6th – Ossett United (H)
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. As we slowly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and because of the cancelled Lucille Rollinson Memorial Tournament, we are down on projected income for the year and we have incurred losses in the last few months.
We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. Several of our players are suffering from effects of the lockdown and we are determined to be in the strongest position possible to provide services for them.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.